Miami nun with chainsaw immortalized with new beer

Nun With a Chainsaw is not the title of a classic George Romero horror flick, but rather the name of a new beer created by Due South Brewing Co. in Boynton Beach as a tribute to Sister Margaret Ann, the Miami nun whose tree-clearing work, captured in a viral video, came to symbolize South Florida fortitude in the days after Hurricane Irma.

The hoppy, IPA-style beer made its debut at the brewery at noon Friday, on draft and in 16ounce cans. The blue cans include no image of a nun, but suggest movie-poster thrills with the words “a Chainsaw” tilted across the front in bright red.

Inspiration for the name came last month as the Due South staff, like the rest of South Florida, was dealing with the aftermath of Irma. Sister Margaret Ann, the principal of Miami’s Archbishop Coleman F. Carroll High School, became a South Florida sensation when her nimble skills with a chainsaw, while dressed in a full nun’s habit and work gloves, were captured in a video taken by a Miami-Dade police officer.

“That story really resonated with us. The nun going out … Who else is going to go out and chop down all the debris? We all dealt with that. I know I did,” says Doug Fairall, Due South Brewing marketing manager, who took a chainsaw to four trees himself after Irma. “Everyone kind of got handy for a week or two. Because they had to do it.”

Calling the beer Nun With a Chainsaw checked a couple of boxes for Due South, being a name that is local and unique. The irreverence doesn’t hurt at a brewery that put a law-enforcement spin on a porter dubbed Calling All Cars, which features coffee and doughnut flavors.

But the respect being paid with Nun With a Chainsaw is sincere, Fairall says, as a tribute not just to the determination of one nun but an entire community that rolled up its sleeves and got to work after the storm. “We’re having fun with it, for sure. But it was a serious event that took place here. She symbolized us all being brought out of our element to do what had to be done,” he says. “It’s a very South Florida thing with hurricanes and storms. We all have to act like her.”